Full moon over the valley

My feet are slowly healing, but I still wasn't ready for an arduous hike.  I got home from the high school at 3:45pm, got Zeke ready, and then met Steve, Bill and Susan at the Ramsey Canyon trailhead parking lot for Brown canyon.  The plan was to walk a gentle 3-mile lollipop loop around the ranch house/nature trail, then climb up to the hill for the view.  We met at 5pm and promptly got on the road to the ranch house.  Moon rise was at 6:07pm; that gave us a leisurely hour for two miles (with that last mile being the walk back down the hill and to the cars.)  There were few clouds in the sky at the start.

A lone white car was parked off the road near the ranch house.  I asked the woman if she was here to watch the moon rise.  "Oh, I didn't know about that!"  We saw her parked at that spot well after moon rise and then leave after the moon rose.

This was Susan's and Tala's route, so naturally Susan talked about Tala again.  Bill had never been on the nature trail, a half-mile loop around a small duck pond, and he was in awe of the reeds.  We had thirty minutes of sunlight before the sun dipped behind the mountains and the mountains cast their shadows on us.

We had Zeke and Trace today.  Both dogs enjoyed a quick dip in the pond before we entered the canyon briefly for the short but steep walk up the hill.  By now it was getting dark, and clouds were forming near the eastern horizon.  Would the moon rise be another bomb?

We sat on some boulders facing the east.  "If that moon doesn't rise on time, we need to leave in ten minutes" I said, to avoid walking down that loose, rocky trail in the dark and risking a fall.  But then at 6:12, we saw the first glow of the orange harvest moon, without any clouds in the way.  The view was gorgeous, and we all quieted down to watch it rise.

As soon as it rose over the Mule mountains, it quickly disappeared behind more clouds.  That's when we started our walk back down the hill and I was the one to trip!  I turned my flashlight app on my phone for most of the way, and soon we were three humans walking in the dark with light beams

It was a short, pleasant walk.  While we could have walked a longer route, I still want to give my ankles some rest.

The walk took us just under 90 minutes.  Susan and Bill drove on home, but Steve and I went into town to watch the end of the Red Sox-Dodgers World Series game.  We got to Native Wings (a cool sports bar) and walked into a loud, packed restaurant.  Oh shit, that's right, I thought, tonight is Trivia night!  We sat at the bar, but even then it was hard to hear one another.

The Red Sox beat the Dodgers 2-1.